A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux(R) (ISBN 013236039X) Book Reviews 1-12 Sorted By Most Recent, at VeryWellSaid.com

Great book for the new user

I'm new to linux in general and heard about Ubuntu through friends. Though I consider myself to be a fairly competent computer user (built computers for 4 years during college and manage hardware/software for a small business), Linux was pretty intimidating to me. This book breaks more complex stuff like RAID array setup, managing software updates, even using the console interface into easy to understand language. This is a rare book, in that it's written by knowledgeable people with the average Joe in mind. You can use it as a step-by-step guide or as a reference book. It's pretty modular, so you can skip what you don't need or want to read without missing anything important for other tasks. If you're thinking about breaking ties with Windows but find Linux intimidating, this is book a great place to start.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-09-06 05:25:48 EST)

07-26-08

(NA)

This is one of the more complete books I've found on Ubuntu.

The book included everything I was looking for and made mastering Ubuntu easy. This is one that I'll keep as a reference.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-09-05 05:28:42 EST)

03-31-08

13\13

A complete guide to Ubuntu Linux for beginning to intermediate users

Finding a single book that encompasses what you want to learn can be difficult. Most cover a few portions of a subject in depth and skim over (or omit) others. Other books will cover each topic at about the same level: high enough to give an impression of what can be done, but not with enough depth to do it without a lot of effort. Mark G. Sobell's "A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux" is a single volume that gives the reader enough information to effectively install, configure and run workstations and servers using Ubuntu Linux. He has come the closest I have seen to containing all of the necessary information without being too shallow. A DVD with the Gutsy Gibbon release of Ubuntu in a directly bootable form is included with the book.

With over two decades of experience related to Unix and Linux, Mark G. Sobell has authored almost two dozen books on the subject. I had previously read and reviewed his book "A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux: Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Second Edition)" and found it the highest quality book I had yet read on Linux. This, his latest book, bears many similarities to the other text, including its high quality. The overall structure is like that of a textbook, providing a summary and exercises at the end of each chapter, as well as copious cross-references.

"A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux" is broken up into five parts containing 27 chapters in all. Each of the chapters provides Jumpstart sections to help you install and configure each server quickly, and enough detail to handle the more common configuration changes. Part I uses two chapters to provide an overview of, and step-by-step instructions for, installing Linux. The step-by-step chapter goes into great detail on each step of the process, using both the graphical and textual installation paths. Part II provides higher-level information that shows newer Linux users what they can do. Part III uses another four chapters to dive deeper into the Bourne Again Shell (BASH), the GUIs, and networking. Starting with Part IV, Mark describes how to perform the more common configuration tasks. Using seven chapters and over 200 pages, Part IV provides a great deal of detail regarding system administration. The final section, Part V, uses nine chapters to go into depth on set up various servers and use their clients. OpenSSH, FTP, exim4 (for mail), NIS, NFS, Samba, DNS/BIND, the firewall (firestarter and iptables), and finally Apache.

Overall, "A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux" by Mark G. Sobell provides all of the information a beginner to intermediate user of Linux would need to be productive. The inclusion of the Live DVD of the Gutsy Gibbon release of Ubuntu makes it easy for the user to test-drive Linux without affecting his installed OS. I have no doubts that you will consider this book money well spent.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-07-28 05:30:40 EST)

03-24-08

(NA)

Solid Reference

The huge table of contents and index make this a great reference tool. Sobell has written a book that can take anyone interested from novice to knowledgeable.

Want to learn linux and know more than just surface level basics? Then I can't recommend this book enough.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-03-31 19:52:27 EST)

03-07-08

1\1

A must have for Ubuntu users

This tome of a book is worth every penny it cost; in some ways it actually undervalued. The author as a brilliant ability of taking an intimidating topic and breaking them down till each topic is clear and understandable. If you use Ubuntu, I'd say it is a must have for the bookshelf, and I doubt it will be collecting dust there.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-03-25 21:42:17 EST)

02-26-08

1\1

Great book for me

Just what I was looking for -- lots of technical content in a very readable and usable style. Not the right book (too much) for a beginner who just wants to do the usual "office like" PC activities, but I wanted to know more about how it works and feel more in control, yet did not wish or need to become a Linux geek just for the sake of it. Thus probably also not the best book for the hard core "system administrator", but for me it was just right.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-03-08 04:13:26 EST)

02-24-08

(NA)

Very Good TextBook

The author has done a very good job at clarifying such a detail-oriented operating system. I have extensive Unix and Windows experience and this text does an excellent job at bridging the gaps between Linux, Windows, and Unix. I highly recommend this book to both 'newbs' and experienced users. Great Job !

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-02-27 19:06:51 EST)

02-19-08

(NA)

It's a Review & a Work-in-Progress.

I bought instead of the "Unleashed" publication because this while this book does go in depth, but it does so in a plain-spoken voice. It's not written from one techie to another. Previous comments about the book's size shouldn't be take too seriously -- remember, this is Linux that you're learning and quite frankly after trying to install Red Hat almost a decade ago (all text and no GUI-handholding) and feeling quite defeated, this book is a breath of fresh air. Both textual and graphical content of the book is easy to understand without the nonsensical stuff you get in the "Dummies..." -- series sometimes it (...for Dummies) works and sometimes the intended humor gets in the way. So far, I've installed Ubuntu on my old Inspiron 8000 laptop and written some line commands with ease. So far, so good. It appears to work faster than Microsoft and I intend to abandon Micro$oft altogether. This seems like to project to do it. Not to get political, but even Operating Systems need change: Yes, we can! (Well...I'll write again when I've done and understand more of Linux.) I purchased the book it with the intention of learning Linux/Unix for work and to also leverage the knowledge to understanding Unix as it is on on Mac OSX.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-02-24 19:53:26 EST)

02-19-08

4\4

Worth It.

Usually, when I read through a book of this size, I find that it's full of "fluff". What really struck me on this book is there is just page after page after chapter after chapter of genuinely useful information. I have seen other readers reviews about how comprehensive this book is but you really don't know the magnitude until you actually have read through it.

As a systems administrator, I naturally gravitated toward the chapters that deal with that kind of thing (chpts 13+). I found the information to be clear and correct and not at all too technical sounding as books dealing with such subjects can quickly become. So impressed was I by the read that I went back through all the early chapters as well. There is a plethora of really useful information there, something for everyone no matter what level of Linux user you may be.

While this book is written primarily for Ubuntu users, and even includes the installation media, the vast majority of the information can be applied to any Linux, save for package installation. This is well written, clear, comprehensive information for the Linux user of any type, weather trying Ubuntu on for the first time and wanting to know a little about it, or using the book as a very good reference when doing something more complicated like setting up a server. This book's value goes well beyond it's purchase price and it'll make a great addition to the Linux section of your bookshelf.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-02-24 19:53:26 EST)

02-02-08

6\6

Outstanding Technical Resource

If you've decided on Debian/Ubuntu Linux as your distribution and you're not already a Linux expert then do yourself justice and purchase a copy of this book. It's thorough and comprehensive; all the while it's insightful and intriguing. The author does a competent job fleshing out concepts while not drowning the reader in distribution specific jargon (which is a real weakness in some Linux texts). The chapters are logically structured working up to more advanced topics and the author never insults the readers intelligence.

I have used Unix/Linux off and on since 1999 and this book brought me back over to Linux. I've never been a particularly advanced user and I always hated searching online for hours trying to figure out how to do things in Linux. Now I just reference this book, which remains on my desk at all times. This is THE book to own for ordinary users and systems administrators alike.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-02-19 10:41:45 EST)

01-28-08

0\1

Very thorough book... Maybe TOO thorough

This is entirely my own opinion of the book.

I just started using Ubuntu on the desktop recently. I wanted to buy a book on Ubuntu, and Linux in general. I went to the bookstore and perused several books, and this one seemed the most complete. It was also the newest book, its always good to stay on top of bleeding edge software. So I bought this one over Ubuntu Unleashed.

The first thing that struck me when I brought this book home and read it was how thorough it is. Mark Sobell definitely wrote a book that can truly encompass just about anything you would want to learn about Ubuntu into one very large book. But that isnt entirely a good thing. Sobell seems to go into very minute detail over some things, yet not really into others. And it seemed the further I got into reading the book, the more I realized that while Sobell definitely knows the subject matter, he isnt very good at explaining it in Lamen's terms. It seems that every other paragraph has to be read a few times before you get the gist of what hes trying to say.

That isnt to say this book is no good. There is a lot of very useful information in here for the learning. However this 1200-page book covers a lot of things the vast majority of users might not ever delve into. It is nice buying one book that goes over everything from installing Ubuntu and booting to the first time, to setting up mail servers, to reprogramming the Bash shell, to recompiling the kernel, to administration tasks. But the problem is a lot of users might never need to use any of this.

I guess the problem is this book fits in the void between people who want to learn the basics about Ubuntu and the people who are getting ready to get certified, without really pandering to either camp. But, this is just one reader's opinion. This book was not really a waste, but if I could do it again I would have bought Ubuntu Unleashed.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-02-04 10:42:36 EST)

01-27-08

(NA)

Extremely comprehensive but what's the target audience?